The Saving Eliot Job

by D890

What happens to the Leverage team when ghosts of enemies past come out of the woodwork to haunt them? What happens when their hitter is taken from their grasp? What happens when they go looking for him? What happens when they find him?

40. Chapter 40

Chapter Forty

I Wanna Paint Outside The Lines

Run The Red Lights In My Mind

Take Everything, One Lifetime Has To Give

I Wanna Stand Inside A Fire

Walk Blind-folded On A Wire

Every Man Dies

But Not Every Man Lives...

Tuesday 09/13 about 4:00 AM

Something was wrong. Something was very very wrong; he could feel it... it or something... something wasn't right. There was something wrong here.

Eliot could hear the steady beeping noise of something sort of... sort of mechanical, maybe? No, he thought as realization slowly dawned in his drug-addled brain. Not mechanical per se, but more like... like computer-y. Like one of Hardison's computers. Eliot knew that beeping sound as it slowly became clearer, sharper; that was the sound of hospital machines. He was in a hospital and he was hooked up to machines; again.

He breathed in slowly and despite the enormous pain he felt spreading throughout his body, he knew instantly he was in a hospital; not like before when he'd came around in Evan's place, but in a real hospital. There was no mistake this time around.

You couldn't fake that antiseptic smell that comes from long usage - it permeated everything like the walls; even the building itself. No, he was in a real hospital. And with that realization everything else come rushing back.

The pain he felt when trying to breathe was almost impossible to tolerate, but he managed to steady his breathing as he slowly exhaled. He felt as well as heard the steady beeping take on a more determined pitch until it was practically yelling in his ear. The sound reverberated through his skull. So much for getting his breathing under control with that noise screaming inside his head, he thought.

Eliot vaguely acknowledged the presence of someone else in the room with him; several someones were gently touching him, his hands, his forehead and they seemed to be whispering something to him. He barely made out the hushed words of 'relax' and 'everything's fine' before the pain in his chest slowly started to ease.

He clenched his eyes tightly shut as he slowly gave into the easing pressure that breathing had put on his lungs, until finally, gratefully, the pain slowly receded. He felt one of the someones, a nurse most likely, moving around him, straightening his bedding and adjusting the monitor attached to his hand. Maybe it was Kat...he sighed as deeply as he dared, as he thought of Kat. But something wasn't right with that assumption.

This person, this woman couldn't be Kat, because Kat was... was what? Kat was what? He tried hard to concentrate, but his brain was becoming numb to thoughts just as his body was becoming numb to the intense pain. He tried hard to think, but whatever he needed to remember was fluttering just beyond his reach. Just as he felt like he couldn't survive if he didn't remember what was eluding him, he felt his world tilt drastically to his right. He was losing his balance even though he knew without a doubt that he was lying perfectly still.

Just before he fell into that deep abyss of unconsciousness, he heard someone saying something... something about...Kat is safe Eliot. You saved Bella and her and she says to tell you she's safe. That was the last thing Eliot heard before he fell down that long dark tunnel of blackness.

Somewhere in Eliot's unconscious

The headlights that had shown on the wall glinting off the bedside clock, were from the truck driven by Sam, a friend of Kat's , Eliot learned as the man came rushing into the cabin before Eliot even made it into the main area to the front door.

He cursed himself for his slow reaction to what he perceived as danger. He was in bad shape if he couldn't even handle one man rushing him.

The man Sam rushed in without hesitation and stopped short when he spied Eliot standing in the doorway between the main room and the bedroom. He'd noticed the butcher knife in Eliot's hand, and he seemed surprised by Eliot's presence here.

"Where's Kat?" Sam rushed to ask as he took in Eliot standing, or more accurately leaning, in the doorway. " I need Kat." He begged.

Eliot blinked a couple times to access this situation. The man knew Kat, he knew this cabin well enough to barge in without knocking and he knew well enough that Kat would be in this cabin at this current time. This must be one of the friends Kat had mentioned had helped her get him here.

"Sam? Your Sam, aren't you?" Eliot asked as he slowly stood up straight, still clutching the knife he'd grabbed from the nearby dining table just before Sam had burst into the room.

"Yes. I'm Sam. And you're Eliot." Sam paused as he walked slowly closer to Eliot. "I need Kat's help; and yours."

Eliot could see the man was clearly upset and on edge. Something had happened, something bad. ""What's wrong? What's happened?"

Sam took a deep breath. "My wife, Bella... he took her. Evan has my wife and if I don't bring you to him, he's going to kill her. I have to bring you and Kat to him or else we all die."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Nate Ford stood at the window watching the nurses as they worked with Eliot. He'd woken in pain they said, and he was clearly in distress as Nate watched one nurse give him something for the pain. Another seemed to be fussing with making hi comfortable and seemed to be speaking to him even though Nate suspected Eliot wouldn't know what she was saying to him.

Something he could only assume was morphine was being administered by the first nurse into one of his IV ports and as Nate witnessed the almost instant change in Eliot, he felt some relief in knowing the man wasn't going to suffer the pain for long. Nate could see him as he had first struggled to breathe, then relaxing almost instantly after the medication hit his system.

He watched Emma leaned over her brother's still form opposite the second nurse who had then stepped away, and now she seemed to be speaking to him. Nate noticed how the lines on Eliot's face seemed to recede at whatever she was saying to him. Whatever it was, it was helping to relax her brother, and for that Nate was grateful.

He knew if Eliot woke up and found he was not only on the same machines he'd probably been on at Evan's place, but also on a ventilator to help control his breathing; he'd probably panic and fight them. He knew as well as Emma probably did that Eliot did not respond well to the unknown. Especially if he was disoriented.

Sam and Bella Thompson stood on one side of him, while Sophie stood on his other side. The two friends of Kat Malone-Wakefield had been watching Eliot since they'd arrived a little while ago; shortly after the police had released them from the warehouse scene they had been sent here. Detective Bonanno had them driven to the hospital to have Bella checked over, even though she had declared she was not injured.

"What do the doctors tell you, Mr. Ford? Will Eliot be all right?" Bella asked, slowly taking her eyes off the scene to look up at Eliot's friend. The man and his team had shown up just as everything was going from bad to worse, and it was their timely appearance that had probably saved them all.

Nate heaved a deep sigh as he gently smiled down at the woman. "They say he should be all right if no complications arise. His leg is broken from the impact of the bullet, but it was a clean break. The bullet fragments were the main concern with that wound. They had to be sure that all the fragments were removed."

"But?"

Nate smiled again as he realized the woman had read him. She could be a grifter with the way she was able to read people. "It's the second chest wound. It's causing some complications in his breathing based on the first wound. He was barely off the breathing machines from that, and now this second wound is dangerously close to the first. This has caused bleeding in his lungs and he's having trouble with the chest draining the blood. As quickly as it drains, his lungs fill up again and now he's on transfusions due to the blood loss. If the drainage doesn't ease up soon, he may need more surgery."

"Gotcha." She smiled reassuringly up at the mastermind, "It's a dangerous time, but I have no doubts in my mind that Eliot will be okay. One thing I've determined is it takes a lot to bring that man down." She looked up at her husband as she spoke. "Kat couldn't have picked a better man."

"Picked?" Sophie turned her attention to the other woman. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, Kat's in love with that young man of yours. I think she probably was from the moment she chose to help him." She paused as she thought about Kat. "I don't know if she realized that at the time, but she is. She most definitely is."

Sophie smiled as she added, "And what's more, Eliot is in love with her. That much I could tell in the way the two of them watched out for each other in that warehouse." The two women shared a look as both men watched. "Speaking of Kat, Bella...have you heard what happened with her? Patrick said that her ambulance never made it to the hospital, and they aren't sure where she is." She lifted soft eyes to meet Nate's. "We know how hard it is to not know the whereabouts of someone you care so very deeply for."

Bella looked at the beautiful woman next to Nate. She was a reader, Bella could tell, and she knew the woman was reading her right this moment. She smiled softly. "Honestly, I have no idea where Kat is, but I do know that she's fine. Of that I am positive."

"How can you be so positive about that?" Nate asked.

"Because I haven't heard anything." She answered again as honestly as she could. "If something had happened, we'd know." Bella indicated her husband. "We're listed as her next of kin and if something was wrong, if she'd died..." She trailed off.

"Got it." Sophia said. "Enough said."

"But I promise you, for Eliot's sake, if we do hear anything, we will pass it along. Promise." Sam added for his wife.

"Yes, promise..." Bella said on a sigh as the four turned back to look at Eliot who was resting peacefully now. "We promise."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hardison sat staring at his computer screen as Parker slept soundly next to him in the big hospital bed. She'd missed the events at the warehouse, but Hardison had hacked into the security cameras so he could show her when she woke up.

And as he rewatched the recording he'd made of the whole event, he couldn't help but be thankful that she had missed it. So much had gone down since all hell broke loose at the flower shop.

First that assault, then Quinn almost died; not to mention he almost lost Parker when the building exploded practically on top of them in that alley. Thank God Bonanno had shown up in time to clear the bad guys from the apartment and get to Nate and Sophie.

When they'd found out that Quinn had given up Sam and Bella to Evan to stop the attack and the threats to Missy and her family, Nate, Sophie and Hardison had headed to Vermont as soon as they knew Parker was stable. They had just crossed the state line, when Nate's cell had rung.

The call they'd been praying for, for days. The call had to be from Eliot. Only it wasn't going to be good news, he knew that much; and he'd been right, it wasn't. It was the worst news. The absolute worst, or so they'd thought at the time.

"Nate? It's me." Came the voice in Nate's ear.

Both Sophie and Hardison heard the voice through their earbuds and they exchanged a triumphant glance; finally, they were hearing from Eliot... Then came the words they had dreaded for the past few days.

"Can't really talk right now, but I need your help."

"What do you need?" Nate knew better than to waste time with questions about what had happened since he'd gone missing. "We're headed your way. We just crossed over into Vermont."

"Well, turn around. I'm not there anymore. I'm headed to a warehouse down by the docks in Boston and I need Hardison to hack into whatever it is he hacks into. Someone has taken a friend of a friend and I'm going to get her back. It's a long story, but just so you know it's my past coming back to haunt me." Eliot sighed before continuing. "It's my brother and I've got to end this once and for all."

"Give me the address." Nate said and Hardison began typing immediately as soon as he heard the address Eliot gave. Nate knew better than to waste time letting Eliot know they knew all about Kat, Bella and Sam now, so he just waited for Hardison to let him know he was in.

"Nate, that's the warehouse we were at before. Evan's warehouse where we found the body of that soldier." Hardison said as he watched the camera feeds pop up on the screens in Lucille. He remembered everything that Whitmore and Vance told him as well as the Wilsons when they'd first arrived at the apartment yesterday.

"Sophie, call Emma and tell her, Vance and Whitmore we're changing direction." Nate whispered moving the cell from his face as he instructed the grifter. The last thing he wanted right now was to alert Eliot that his family was here as well.

"Damnit, Nate! Did you call my family?!" Nate as well as Sophie and Hardison heard the words that came from his cell, which caused Sophie to hesitate to pull out her own cell phone.

So much for trying to keep that secret. Nate slowly moved the cell back to his ear. "Ummm, maybe..."

"Nate, so help me..." Eliot had stopped to drag in a ragged breath. Breathing was so gonna be a problem if he kept getting this kind of news. "Okay, too late to stop that. Vance and Matt will be helpful anyway. Tell them to prep for a Fort Apache approach; they'll know what that means; and Nate..."

Hardison sucked in his breath at the way Eliot's voice had changed from his initial anger to this soft barely audible tone when he spoke Nate's name.

"Yes, Eliot?" Nate prodded.

"Just... keep Sophie and Parker and... and Emma away from the warehouse and the computers. Earbuds too." He paused as he knew that they were all probably listening to him right now through Nate's earbud. "and tell Emma I'm sorry."

Nate sucked in a breath. "What do you mean Eliot?"

"Just what I said. Tell Emma I'm sorry about...about everything. And tell her I tried."

Sophie couldn't contain herself any longer. She reached for Nate's phone. "What did you try Eliot? What are you going to do?"

"Goodbye, Sophie."

Hardison stared at Sophie as she lowered Nate's phone. They all looked at each other as they realized exactly what the man was thinking of doing.

"Hardison, get those security cameras online and... and if you can find a way to stall Eliot do it; I'm positive he'll get there before us." Nate instructed. "Sophie call Emma and tell her we're going back and what Eliot said." He added softly.

"Why me?"

"Because...because for once, for once, being a woman is why." He softened his tone. "And because Emma will need to hear it from someone, she knows cares about Eliot just as much as she does, and because I'm asking you to." His eyes pleaded with hers as they both knew what he was asking her to do.

Sophie quietly nodded and used his phone to dial Emma. She and the others were following Lucille and she knew once Nate turned around and headed back, they'd be calling anyway. They didn't have any earbuds thankfully since the attack at the flower shop had destroyed most of Hardison's supply, so they didn't know Eliot had called.

Sophie didn't know how she was going to do this, but she knew she had to do this for Eliot. She had to tell his sister that Eliot was heading into the fray to rescue someone and that he fully intended to not survive this time. How was she supposed to tell her that Eliot might not make it out alive this time?

Hardison shook his head to clear his thoughts as he fine-tuned the video on his monitor. It really didn't need any more fine-tuning, but he couldn't bring himself to move on to something else. He couldn't bring himself to not watch the video again as he hit replay and prepared to watch exactly how Eliot and the woman known only as Kat to them had walked quietly and confidently into that warehouse seemingly unarmed.

He watched again as he listened to the conversation he already knew so well. "Okay, Evan. You wanted me here and here I am. Let the women leave and I'm all yours. Just as soon as they've cleared out, you can do what you've been waiting to do for a long time." Eliot waited as one of Evan's men released Bella and she ran to join Kat standing near Eliot.

"Let them go. They won't be any problem to hunt down later." Evan instructed his men. "That is, if I even want to." He smiled as he watched Eliot. "Right now, all I want is to watch the great Eliot Spencer die a painful death by my hand."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kat slowly opened her eyes as she looked up into the deep blue eyes looking down at her. At first, she thought they must belong to Eliot, but as she blinked a few times, she realized they were too blue. Eliot's eyes were greyer in this light. She blinked a few more times and took in the soft light in the room as well as the man bending over her. Benji, she realized with a small sigh. She smiled to let him know she was awake, but she couldn't hide her disappointment at the fact he was not Eliot.

"Hey... about time you woke up. We were beginning to worry." The young nurse replied as he moved to sit next to her on the large bed.

Kat took in the fact she was in a room and not a hospital. Good, she thought. Her identity in Boston was burned thanks to Evan and the recent events, so this meant she was in a private residence.

"We?" She questioned, as she breathed in slowly, realizing she really wasn't experiencing much pain. "Where am I, Benji? Where's Eliot?"

The young man reached over her head where an IV bag hung from the bedpost and adjusted the drip. "You're at Joy's fathers' home just outside Boston. My mom, Flo is here and so is Joy and her dad. He was a doctor, but he's retired now." He watched as she took in everything he was telling her, and he noticed how her brow wrinkled as he spoke. He heaved a sigh; she knew he wasn't telling her everything. She could always tell. "You weren't injured too severely, the bullet entered your abdomen and thanks to Aaron and Tracy who responded to the call at the warehouse, they were able to load you up and get you out. Aaron called mom, and mom called Joy's dad. She knew him before he retired and apparently still knows him."

Kat listened to the man and knew he was avoiding her other question. "So, I'll live. Good to know." She said as she decided to let the guy stew for a few minutes wondering when she'd attack him about Eliot. "What about Evan and the rest of the Eliot's team, and Bella? How's Bella?"

"Everyone got out unharmed as far as we know, well almost everyone..." He trailed off.

Okay, she thought that's not good. "Benji, please..."

The young man sighed as he looked at her. He was about to make an excuse to leave the room, when Florence, his mother came to his rescue.

"Most everyone is safe Kat. You and your young man saved everyone." She spoke from the doorway. She slowly walked into the room and gently put her hand on her son's shoulder. "Benji, hon, why don't you go get some rest. I'll take over now."

"Sure. See you later, Kat."

Kat watched the man leave the room and then watched as Florence moved a chair up close to the bed and sat down to face her. She sat silently for a few minutes, then she reached for a notebook and pen on the nightstand and she made seemed to be making notes in it.

"What are you doing?" Kat asked softly.

Florence looked up from her work to smile gently at her. "Just making some notes on your care. We may not be in a hospital, but paperwork is a necessity to make sure we don't forget anything." She put the notebook back down on the nightstand and then she took a dep breath. "Before you go asking me about Eliot, this is what I know. He was taken to Mass Gen in critical condition. He was shot twice more, but you probably remember that." At Kat's quiet nod, she continued, "One bullet entered his left leg impacting with the femur bone causing a clean break. However, the bullet fragmented on impact and it took several hours to collect all the fragments in surgery, but it helped tremendously that the femur itself wasn't shattered."

Kat agreed with that as a shattered femur would be weeks of rest and PT care not to mention the possibility of steel rods being needed and she knew Eliot was not the kind of man that would take to staying in bed for a few days, let alone weeks. And that all depended on surviving the blood loss as well as surgery to reconstruct the femur. She sighed heavily as she waited for Flo to come to a stop and when she didn't immediately begin again, Kat asked, "But what aren't you telling me?"

"The young man was also shot in the chest in the opposite lung as the first wound he already had. That wound is the most serious and all I know right now is he's in the SICU and on a ventilator."

Kat sucked in her breath at that. That wasn't a good thing; it meant he wasn't breathing on his own. "Tell me all of it."

Flo continued as if she were talking to one of her fellow nurses on duty. "This new pulmonary laceration has caused the first one to re-open and Eliot has blood building up in his lungs. He has two chest tubes working to drain the blood from both his lungs and the pleural cavity, but because of the blood he's losing, he has to be on transfusions and from what I understand, his drainage tubes aren't draining as quickly as they could be. This is causing the breathing problems as you know, and that's why he's being kept sedated and on the ventilator. From a friend, I understand he woke up briefly, about an hour ago and had to be sedated for the pain. They have been forewarned that he might not understand what the tubes all meant and they are hoping that he will begin to drain the blood a little faster in the hope of getting him off the ventilator within the next 24 hours."

Kat knew the prognosis for that if he didn't. The longer he was on the vent the less better his chances at survival were. "Have they thought about a tracheostomy?" She asked hoping the surgical placement of a tube inside his trachea might help and would get rid of the ventilator, but she knew the odds of that since he'd already been through surgery probably several hours for both his chest and his leg. "Never mind, I know better. They won't even think of doing that if his bleeding isn't better, because he could die on the table. The bleeding is the big thing right now."

"Yes." Flo said softly. "But after what Aaron told me he learned about him, this man Eliot is a fighter and I think God helps those that fight. I don't know much about him, but I'm willing to bet he's a good man and he'll be fine and he has his family surrounding him. From what I understand there are quite a few people at the hospital for him, so that alone tells me he's a good man."

Kat smiled as the tears filled her eyes. "Eliot doesn't think he's a good man, and no one can make him believe that." She said quietly.

"Oh I don't doubt that, but if you decided to help him, then there's something there in him that's good. You wouldn't have given him the time of day if it wasn't. And because of that I know in my heart that God is watching over him."

Kat smiled again as she listened to the woman, but she knew in her heart if Eliot met God at the gates of Heaven, he'd tell him He'd made a mistake and jump ship if that were possible. He'd be the first to probably even convince God He'd made a mistake because Eliot already had himself destined to an afterlife of penance in Hell. Not even God Himself would be able to convince Eliot Spencer that he was a good man.

AN: Okay I fully expected chapter 40 to be the last chapter, but now that I'm here I realize I need to add one more to tie up the warehouse part of the story. And no you have not missed a chapter, I just skipped ahead and am doing some backtracking so sorry if I've confused everyone. Bear with me and all (or mostly all) will be revealed, and no I didn't kill Eliot either! Not yet, anyway...

AN: Okay everyone - here it is the last chapter. Feels great and sad at the same time. Finally finished my baby... now set to writing the sequel. I hope you enjoy it and please send those reviews my way. Thanks so much, you guys have been wonderful throughout this long journey.